1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to mapping infrastructure, and in particular, to a computer implemented method for mapping infrastructure layout between non-corresponding datasets.
2. Description of Related Art
Mapping infrastructure such as roadways may be accomplished through various types of datasets. Often a roadway may be divided up into a set of links, each link having two endpoints that may be located spatially such as by using a geographic coordinate system of latitude and longitude. Additional data may be stored for each endpoint or link. There are two primary categories of links, known as long links and short links, which may be utilized depending on the application.
Long links are a dataset typically used for display purposes. Long links typically have two endpoints with a series of midpoints connected by segments. The segments may be represented by vectors. Long links typically require less storage than short links, yet can be rendered into finely detailed maps including apparent curves. Long links typically do not contain information other than what is needed to render maps and are sometimes referred to as shape files as a result. For example, long links typically do not include analytic information such as traffic volume or speed limits. A common type of long link data format is the esri shape file format promoted by the Environmental Systems Research Institute.
Short links are a dataset generally used for analytic purposes. That is, short links are utilized where analytics are performed on the dataset such as calculating traffic volume given road conditions. Each short link includes a start point and an end point although the endpoint may be the start point for the next link. The endpoints contain geospatial coordinates where each link generally contains one speed limit, traffic volume, road conditions, average speed, etc. These links are short enough for meaningful analytics and may be updated automatically with collections devices, sensors and other data sources. One typical format utilized for short links is TMDD (traffic management data dictionary). TMDD describes a format that represents links as a start point and an end point. The main purpose of the TMDD standard is to supply traffic data for the purpose of analytics such as traffic prediction.